Today I wanted to quickly share with you what I see the successful business people / professionals doing to keep or gain that edge over others in their chosen field of endeavor.
Think what you do to attract people to your business / product / service. This is called marketing. Each year you spend money trying to let people know your business exists, what it has to offer and where it is. This is called advertising and is done roughly in order of expense / investment and audience reach via:
- Networking with family and friends.
- Email marketing
- Billboard signage
- Physically handing out business cards.
- Direct mail
- Sales reps canvassing.
- Letter box drops.
- Local Newspaper ads.
- Local radio ads.
- Local TV ads.
It is undisputed that TV advertising has the greatest market reach, but the investment is out of reach of 99% of small to medium businesses. Here is what is really fascinating me at the moment. Next time you are sitting down watching the telly, when the ads come on instead of flicking the channel watch what 8 out of every 10 advertiser is doing.
They are trying to send you to their website.
Isn’t that fascinating. Here is the guys that spend the big bucks on the best advertising medium and what they are they trying to do?
They are not trying to
- Get you to call them on the phone?
- Get you to email them?
- Get you to remember where their store is located?
No – what they are trying to do is deliver a simple message to grab your attention and then get you to visit their site.
If you’ve not noticed that – check it out and see. Then ask your self – Why? Why are they all doing that?
Then ask yourself – in the marketing that you do, are you trying to send people to your website? If not, why not?
You see it does not matter what the advertising medium is that you use, brochure drops, signs, cards, newspaper, radio, TV you can never afford the space and time that it would take to tell people about your business.
What the big budget operators have realized is that once they have people go to their website they have unlimited room, space and time to present every aspect of their business in the best possible light to the user. Best of all those people who do go to the web site from an ad are 100% qualified potential customers / clients.
Whats the punch line of this post?
Every piece of paper , every card , every sign, every brochure, every Newspaper, Radio and TV ad you do – make sure your web address is on it.
One Caveat
The old saying stands truer than ever when it comes to websites:
‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression.’
In other words if you have a website that you as the business owner are not that happy for people to be visiting – then don’t do it. If a new person sees it, chances are that you have just blown your chance of creating a positive impression of your business in that persons mind. After that happens it does not matter how much money you spend on advertising , that first impression is almost impossible to change.
I actually tell my clients – you are better off having no web site than an amateurish unprofessional website. Not having a site won’t win you any business but at least it won’t drive potential customers away for life.
Hope you enjoyed today’s business marketing tip.
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